Within the past decade, the variety of sources for providing television programs have increased dramatically. Today television programs are transmitted using analog or digital signals through airwaves, cable, and satellites. As such, a user is capable of tuning to stations providing television programs that may originate from multiple sources through a receiver or set-top box. For example, a user may have set-top box connected with a local antenna to receive television programs broadcasted through the airwaves. The set-top box may also receive television programs via a cable connection. In addition, the set-top box may receive television programs through a satellite system, for example, the RCA Direct Satellite System™ or DSS™ (Direct Satellite System and DSS are trademarks of Hughes Communications, a division of General Motors).
Because each source includes a number of stations for providing television programs, the number of stations available to a user has increased from one to hundreds of stations. For each station, there is a corresponding channel number that is used to tune to the station. Consequently, the number of channel numbers available to a user is limited. As a result, a user receiving multiple sources for providing television programs may have a channel number that may tune to multiple stations from different sources. In such a case, the channel number is considered “over-lapping.”
In prior systems, channel numbers, which may include over-lapping channel numbers, are designated to a default source based on which source the set-top box is configured to receive. That is, a user must press a switch or button on the set-top box to change the default source. Consequently, in such prior systems, the ability to select a default source is not seamlessly integrated and a user is unable to select easily a default source for programming channel numbers.